by Jenny Mollen
First published 2016
Jenny Mollen lives in New York as a writer and actress with her husband, two dogs, and baby son Sid. Before motherhood, she embraced her eccentric side. She stalked her husband's ex-girlfriend and wore the woman's old caftans. She befriended a defendant during jury duty and got kicked off. She invited their drug dealer to Passover dinner. Her husband loved her wild, irresponsible nature. Then Sid arrived and everything changed. Suddenly she was expected to act like a responsible adult. She was supposed to brush her hair, take vitamins, send holiday cards, and listen to voicemail. At thirty-five, Mollen wasn't ready to abandon her dreams of being discovered at the mall and becoming a model. Her body felt eighteen even if her age said otherwise. She faces the terror of loving someone more than herself while wrestling with questions that plague many women. Has she accomplished enough? How does she break up with her dogs now that she has a baby? The essays explore her struggle between wanting to remain a fun-loving woman-child and accepting the weight of true responsibility.
Genres: autobiography, contemporary, adult-fiction, biography-memoir, comedy, 21st-century
Vibes: emotional, fast-paced, intimate, thought-provoking
Tropes: coming-of-age, found-family, unreliable-narrator
Setting: New York
Period: 21st-century
272 pages · Hardcover · Doubleday